The season couldn’t have started much better for the Fort Collins high school basketball team.

The Lambkins defeated Westminster 81-25 at home Thursday night.

Fort Collins opened the game on a 13-0 run and never looked back, holding a 20-point lead for the entire second half.

“We just wanted to dictate the tempo of the game by being aggressive on the defensive end,” Fort Collins coach Monty Alcaraz said. “We wanted to create easy opportunities with ball pressure and creating turnovers.”

Senior Ryan French put the Lambkins up 56 with 6.93 seconds left on a layup that clinched the game’s final margin.

Fort Collins lead by 20 for most of the second half, but didn’t slack in its effort or execution with the big lead, instead continuing its pressure to extend the margin.

“We talked about it at halftime, not being lethargic and making sure we showed energy coming out for the second half and I think the kids did a good job of maintaing that energy level,” Alcaraz said.

Westminster kept the game closest in the second quarter, scoring 10 points to Fort Collins’ 15, but turnovers derailed any chance of the Wolves keeping the game competitive.

Fort Collins collected 19 steals in the game and regularly turned those chances into points on the fast break.

The Lambkins also took advantage of their size. Toby Van Ry (6’ 8”) and Tristan Von Nieda (6’ 6”) received the ball early and often in the post and dominated the glass over the course of the game.

The threat of the post also opened up outside shooters, and Fort Collins didn’t take the open looks for granted.

The Lambkins connected on eight three pointers in the game and many of them resulted from open shots.

Senior Ryan French lead Fort Collins with 16 points while Von Nieda scored 14 and had 12 rebounds. Overall four Lambkins scored in double figures.

“Everybody was ready to play, they were confident and I thought they did a great job sharing the ball,” Alcaras said.

Fort Collins dished out 14 assists over the course of the game.

The game wasn’t entirely perfect for the Lambkins, however. Fort Collins turned the ball over 20 times and had trouble initiating its offense and keeping the ball moving if the team couldn’t score on the fast break.

The Lambkins will play at Regis Jesuit for their next game at 7:00p.m. Saturday.